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" Dust or dew: Immortality in the Ancient Near East and in Psalm 49 "
Janet Katherine Smith
K. W. Sharpe, M. Willson
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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54805
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TL24759
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| Call number
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3384593
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| Main Entry
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Janet Katherine Smith
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Dust or dew: Immortality in the Ancient Near East and in Psalm 49\ Janet Katherine Smith
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| College
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Union Institute and University
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| Date
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2009
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Ph.D.
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2009
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| Page No
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332
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| Abstract
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In the Hebrew Bible, particularly in the Book of Psalms, the Book of Job, and the Prophets, there are many references to sheol , the ancient Israelite version of the nether world of the Ancient Near East. Rather than offering a timeless, theological, systematic understanding of the afterlife, references appear to be contradictory. There are few explicit references to a blissful heaven where the righteous spend eternity with loved ones and God. Those passages that hint at immortality are balanced by others suggesting that a grim and dusty existence in sheol is the final fate for man and beast alike. A few tantalizing insinuations, one of which is found in Psalm 49, suggest that there is a redemptive deliverance for the righteous from sheol by Yahweh, who will receive (take up) the believer to wherever Yahweh eternally exists. However, Psalm 49 should not be read out of the various contexts of the culture and literature of the times. The Korahite collection of psalms appears have been written or edited together to function as a worship drama, reminding the righteous follower of God's faithfulness in delivering them from former crises and in granting them a blessed city and Temple. Psalm 49 and the Korahite Psalter may have been used yearly for the pilgrimage to Zion, perhaps during the harvest when one year ended and another began and the ground awaited the rain to aid in the next year's planting. This study also follows the hints of the renewal of life in Psalms 49, 16, and 73. These psalms paved the way for a full-blown theology of resurrection and judgment day, which came full circle in the Talmudic and Apocryphal literature of the Second Temple era. Another important context for Psalm 49 is Genesis 1-3 and the culture of goddess and serpent worship. Linguistic similarities between Gen. 1-3 and Ps. 49 suggest that the message is similar... right living leads to eternal life and wrong choices pave the road to death.
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Philosophy, religion and theology; Social sciences; Language, literature and linguistics; Immortality; Near East; Psalms; Afterlife; Psalm 49; Ancient Near East; Sheol; Genesis 1-3; Ancient languages; Biblical studies; Archaeology; Near Eastern Studies; 0321:Biblical studies; 0289:Ancient languages; 0324:Archaeology; 0559:Near Eastern Studies
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K. W. Sharpe, M. Willson
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Union Institute and University
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